The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Mobile computing devices (laptop computers, mobile phones, tablet computers, etc.) can be configured to receive media content from a cloud-based media service. For example, some cloud-based media services allow users to store media files (audio files, video files, etc.) at a server. A user can request one or more specific media files to be transmitted or “streamed” to the mobile computing device. The server encodes the requested media files at a specific bit rate to obtain a media stream, and provides the media stream to the mobile computing device via a network, e.g., the Internet.
When a user of a mobile computing device is traveling, the mobile computing device may travel through areas where the capabilities of the network are reduced. For example, a mobile computing device may travel through a “dead zone” in a cellular network in which there is limited or no access to the network. When traveling through an area of reduced network capabilities, delivery of the media stream may be interrupted. Such interruptions may decrease the experience of the user if the mobile computing device is required to pause playback of the media stream, e.g., to perform a buffering operation.